Top Performers of Favorite Christmas Songs

As I mentioned earlier, a post I wrote for another blog last year is suddenly getting a lot of traffic, as people start searching the web for Christmas music. This post has the searchable title Top 100 Christmas Songs, and lists the most popular Christmas songs according to MusicDNS.

As a follow up, I now present the most popular versions of the top 10 Christmas songs. Who's performance of these classics has won the popular heart and mind? These numbers are based on how many people have these songs in their music collections, not radio play or record sales. Running some quick reports across a data export of MusicDNS, it looks like the answers are as follows:

1. Silent Night 145 artists

• Mariah Carey
• Sinéad O'Connor
• Boyz II Men
• Stevie Nicks
• Nat King Cole

2. White Christmas 103 artists

• Bing Crosby
• Otis Redding
• Elvis Presley
• Dean Martin
• Kenny G

3. The Christmas Song 104 artists

• Dave Matthews
• Nat King Cole
• Vince Guaraldi
• Christina Aguilera
• Céline Dion

4. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 79 artists

• Frank Sinatra
• The Pretenders
• Kenny G
• Luther Vandross
• Christina Aguilera

5. Winter Wonderland 105 artists

• Eurythmics
• Bing Crosby
• Peggy Lee
• Jewel
• Doris Day

6. Jingle Bells 87 artists

• Diana Krall
• Jim Reeves
• Frank Sinatra
• Techno Christmas
• The Simpsons

7. O Holy Night 75 artists

• Mariah Carey
• Trans-Siberian Orchestra
• Céline Dion
• Nat King Cole
• South Park

8. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 66 artists

• The Pointer Sisters
• Bruce Springsteen
• Frank Sinatra / Cyndi Lauper
• The Jackson Five
• Perry Como

9. I'll Be Home For Christmas 64 artists

• Nat King Cole / Bing Crosby / Frank Sinatra
• Bing Crosby
• Amy Grant
• Kenny G
• Doris Day

10. Silver Bells 58 artists

• Kenny G
• Jim Reeves
• Dean Martin
• Bing Crosby
• Mannheim Steamroller

Those are some interesting names - many expected, others more surprising. If your favorite isn't listed, I'm sure they were up near the top, there are a lot of artists who get dropped in a top 5 format like this, including many excellent performances. Some of the unusual items include the South Park and Simpsons versions (likely popular downloads), and the Techno Christmas version of Jingle Bells.

For me, Christmas just isn't the same without Bing Crosby.